Third chapter of the week (July 21)

If the Reading List on NU reaches 1000, there will be a bonus chapter! Currently: 970/1000.

Chapter 53: Team Divided into Two Groups (Part 1)

Yun Tu"s att.i.tude toward Gui Jiaosan astonished the two women.

"To campaign all over the world", such words had never came out from him before.

Such enthusiasm and care Yun Thu showed toward someone was not something they had ever seen from him. And through their conversation, it was obvious that he and Gui Jiaosan were not acquaintances.

Just like the two women, Gui Jiaosan was also dizzy and confused.

He didn"t understand as to why Yun Tu—such a powerful Awakened—would treat him this amiably. Not only did he give him the Black Zombie"s head last time, he even struggled to give him a time and chance to run away. Regardless of any dangers, he stood up and boldly charged forward to keep off the tide of zombies for him.

And today"s incident was also because he shot them first, as they indisputably only returned the shot back. However, even after he was shot, regardless of anything, he was immediately rescued from dying.

All the things that had happened were inconceivable and hard to believe. And frankly speaking, he had no reason to refuse Yun Tu"s invitation since no matter what had happened, Yun Tu was his benefactor.

"Boss, you have done such huge grace to me in the first place. As long as I can have some food to eat and live, from now on even if Boss Yun Tu sends this Gui Jiaosan anywhere, I won"t be afraid nor will I cower because of it. But, the thing is, I still have a young son to take care of at home. So, if I have to follow you, there"ll be one more mouth to feed. I don"t dare to ask the same food ration of adult for him, it"s fine if he could get half of it!"

Either it was in the Southern or Northern District, all major guilds were currently recruiting members, and the basic welfare they offered was two full meals a day. To successfully become an Awakened didn"t mean that one could still go on living. Along with the pa.s.sing time, the scarcity of food would become a more terrible demon compared to zombies; it could even drive people into madness.

Gui Jiaosan had always been thinking about this problem after he had become an Awakened. His son—Dingding—concerned him the most, since nearly all the guilds would not accept any Awakened who was burdened with their family.

If his wife didn"t die, those guilds perhaps would consider to accept two Awakened with a child. Even if the both of them couldn"t enter the guild together to work for them, but Gui Jiaosan could still join as an individual and think of another means to aid his family. But now, since his wife had died, his son could only follow him.

Although Yun Tu was his benefactor and thought highly and wanted to recruit him, but he could never abandon his son. Therefore, even if Yun Tu refused him, at least he had explained it to him, otherwise his life would have been miserable.

In his previous incarnation, Yun Tu didn"t know that Gui Jiaosan had a son. Because by the time he knew Gui Jiaosan, his son—Dingding—was already dead. One million people, at very least, had died in this Apocalypse, and mentioning one dead person was quite unimportant. The strong optimism character Gui Jiaosan had, causing him to never talk about his deceased family member, made it so Yun Tu never knew about this matter.

“You have a son?”

From his words, Yun Tu realized that he had confused this life with his previous incarnation. He met Gui Jiaosan in this life earlier, so everything was possible.

"My child is 8-years-old this year. He"s also an Awakened, but he"s still too young and shouldn"t be involved in the fights!" Gui Jiaosan"s eyes faced Yun Tu and carefully answered.

“It"s the end!”

Feng Ling instinctively felt that by Yun Tu"s personality, he would have never allow anyone who was burdened by family to take shelter under him. The first time she and Qing Yi met him in the dormitory, it could be seen that he was afraid that they would become his burden. And a couple days ago, in that small business hotel, Yun Tu also only took the two of them amongst the other people. And this, had fully explained the point. But shortly after, Yun Tu"s decision stemmed out from her expectation.

"Ah, right. Since you have a son, take him along with us!"

Had it been any other person, Yun Tu most certainly would have carefully considered it. But he could never ignore Gui Jiaosan"s son. He didn"t even ask how old his son was.

"Thank you, Boss! I"ll be your subordinate from now on!"

Gui Jiaosan stood and solemnly bowed toward Yun Tu. Being able to take his son and join a team was naturally a very good thing for him.

The team now had turned into a 5-man team due to Gui Jiaosan"s arrival, one of which was a child. Engaging guerilla warfare to fight those giants was no longer convenient, as for now it was imperative to establish a base for their own guild!

After propping up Gui Jiaosan from his solemn bow, Yun Tu"s sight turned to look at a distance as his complexion turned firm and solemn.

…

“G.o.d, what are those?”

Suddenly, Feng Ling also found unusual forms which were shaped like big rats. But it was bigger, and its appearance was even uglier than any rats or any other rodent creatures.

"Ssh, don"t make a fuss over nothing, those are a small group of Demon Rats!" Yun Tu took out his longsword whilst speaking.

The Rose Virus not only infected humans in the Apocalypse, but also animals. The pack of creatures in front of them accurately should be called "Zombie Rats". However, to be more convenient in distinguishing them, people usually called them Demon Rats, so they could differentiate them with humans from zombies. It was also to distinguish them with the original animals on Earth from the creatures that came out from the broken Secret Areas.

These kinds of devilish beasts could rarely be seen in the city, since Jiangnan City before the Apocalypse was one of the top 10 healthy cities and the rodent extermination program was executed well; the city even also applied a strict control over domestic pets. Therefore, it was the first time for the two women to see these things as they instinctively felt disgusted.

They acted and moved together, and quickly exterminated this small pack of Demon Rats.

Yun Tu took this opportunity to point at some dead tree trunk on the roadside to add some new knowledge to his team members. The dead trunk had re-grown and sprouted new leaves, but they were completely different from their previously purple-colored leaves.

The downpour of the rain of blood had brought thorough changes to Earth. In a short time, the Earth"s environment would be completely different from its original appearance. The changes would not be clearly seen and people would not realize it until the second week of the Apocalypse. But in the third week of the Apocalypse, the mutation"s speed that happened to the vegetation would exponentially multiply, as the infection and mutation would also spread out faster. The whole world would become a completely different place within less than a month and turned into its original state, a Jura.s.sic primordial jungle.

And once those creatures that came out from the Secret Areas combined with the mutated original biological forms on Earth that had adapted to the new environment, their reproductive capacity and growth rate would reach the point of terror.

However, Yun Tu didn"t tell the last sentence to everyone ahead of time. He just raised the topic slightly as to prepare them psychologically.

The time now was 5PM, and daytime would soon end. Under such a dark night, it would be extremely dangerous for the team of four to pick back Gui Jiaosan"s son, Dingding, and traversed through the Eastern District filled with rampant zombies.

Originally, Gui Jiaosan had disregarded his own life and death in rushing to the Secret Area. But now, since he had joined a team, he was worried that the longer the time was delayed, the bigger the possibility that Yang Fengbo would create more trouble. He insisted that he must traverse through the night and go back.

When it came to children"s safety, Qing Yi"s heart softened. She knew that traversing through the night would create quite the noise and she was also the one who would affect their speed and movements" efficiency the most. So she didn"t want to be the cause for a tragedy to happen.

"Since it"s related to a child"s safety, how about Big Brother Yun Tu accompany Big Brother Gui Jiaosan and head back to the Southern District tonight? While I and Feng Ling will look for a safe place to spend the night. And all of us will gather again at the agreed gathering place!"

“That"s a good idea!”

Yun Tu didn"t want Gui Jiaosan"s son to fall into a predicament also. At present, the distance from this place to the Northern District was somewhat closer compared to the Southern District. Although the Northern District was also in a mess, but at present, in regards to personal safety alone, the Northern Area could be said as the safest area.

After they agreed to meet again at the government plaza in the Northern District, Yun Tu and Gui Jiaosan hit the road again. They left the Eastern District and headed straight toward the Southern District. As for Feng Ling and Qing Yi, they looked for a safe place to rest nearby and then left after dawn to the government plaza in the Northern District to meet with Yun Tu and Gui Jiaosan.

Before they left, Qing Yi used her occupational skill again to treat Gui Jiaosan"s wound. After having repeated treatment, Gui Jiaosan"s wound was no longer serious and it would not affect his speed in an intense fight.

After coming out from the Secret Area, the Metal Smelting Force from Yun Tu"s Alchemy Job had been restored. He had strengthened his Green-tier dagger with the Second Order Green Zombie"s fangs on the way, and now he also had completed the second strengthening process for his Green-tier dagger. The dagger now had changed appearance from a deep green-colored into a dark blue-colored dagger. It seemed that his dagger had been upgraded into a Second Tier, and its destructive power now had achieved a frightening three-digit number.

With a powerful weapon at hand, if he were to encounter the Green Haired Zombie again and was able to strike it first, that zombie was highly likely to be killed at once.

They didn"t encounter any Green Zombies all the way down to the Eastern District, but they met ordinary zombies and Black Zombies from time to time, and he was able to quickly finish all of them. Gui Jiaosan, who finally experienced how strong his boss was, truly admired him and was secretly glad that he had met a good Master.

In any case, since this life and his previous incarnation already diverged, coupled with his need to establish a team, the grateful feeling and the view Yun Tu had toward Gui Jiaosan inside his heart transformed as he now placed him into a new position. He couldn"t be too biased, because he was shackled by the memory from his past incarnation, since it would not create conducive situation for the team in the future. Therefore, he didn"t give the best items to him at the moment and only handed him his altered Fire Axe.

However, since this axe had already been altered, its strength alone increased Gui Jiaosan"s melee combat greatly, as the latter naturally felt endless grat.i.tude toward him.

The both of them traversed in a rush without even collecting the Blood Crystals from the dead ordinary zombies. In the next four hours, they finally succeeded in traversing through the dangerous Eastern District.

However, when they arrived at Gui Jiaosan"s house, there was only Yang Fengbo alone there, with Gui Jiaosan"s son nowhere to be seen…